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Will the Lack of DX10 on XP Spur OpenGL Dev?
Sparr0 asks: "Microsoft has announcement that DirectX 10 will not be released for Windows XP (which means no Shader Model 4.0 and no Geometry Shaders). I have since been waiting for news of game developers switching to OpenGL, in order to get the best graphics on the best hardware on the most popular gaming OS, however there is nary a whisper of such. Will such a shift occur, even if only in small amounts? When? Why not? It is probably safe to say that Unreal Tournament 3 (AKA UT2007) will have OpenGL as an option in Windows, but that is both unsurprising and also a long way off. Ditto for Quake Wars, and most other games that are planning a native Linux clients. Where are all of the other big names with Windows-only offerings? Why haven't we heard from Valve, Blizzard, Sony, or EA, to name a few?"
DX9 should be enough for anybody . . .
Seriously, I doubt that companies like Valve will switch to OpenGL for winxp releases. They already have extensive directx know-how and will probably just build in DX9 and DX10 support just like they currently build in support for DX7, 8 and 9.
In the end, most people will upgrade to vista. Either because they want to or because they need it for a certain program to run or simply because it came pre-installed on their shiny new Dell. It is inevitable.
It is my hope that maybe, just maybe, this could spur developers to, instead of focusing on making a visually cutting-edge game using the latest and greatest hardware and APIs, start to focus on trying to make the most fun and innovative possible game using the "previous gen technology", if you will. Not to say that both can't be achieved, but I would say that invariably games tend to focus on one in favor of the other.
Future indie game developer of America (and possibly Canada)
Where are all of the other big names with Windows-only offerings? Why haven't we heard from Valve, Blizzard, Sony, or EA
Sorry, but only one is windows only. Last I checked, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, and Diablo II run on Mac. And in the case of WC3, the CD has a Mac and windows version on the same CD. Amazon.com tells me that EA's #1 game (The Sims 2) also runs on the Mac. Can anyone tell me a Windows game Sony makes? The only windows software I can think of is SoundForge and their CD DRM, but the latter I don't think I want to work cross-platform;) That leaves Valve, which is run bun a former MS hotshot, so I think that might have something to do with the company's founder preferring Direct3D.
I think many developers are already using OpenGL, but of course, that's only one part of being cross platform. Network, sound, and input also need to be implemented cross-platform....
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Just for your information, the GLORIOUS wine project will eventually have a reverse-engineered implementation of the DX10 API, for all the UNIX flavours it supports, AS WELL AS WINDOWS. Check it out... http://winehq.com/?issue=325#DirectX%2010%20For%20 SoC?
Short quote:
"Jokes aside, there aren't any dx10 apps yet, except some demo apps. The first one to be expected is Halo 2 on April 24th afaik. The only thing is that MS has created some hype around dx10 recently. It would give us some nice publicity if the Halo 2 box states "Runs on Windows Vista and higher" and winehq.org says "Runs Halo 2 on Linux, MacOS, Windows XP and earlier"
I work for a major game studio. Direct X games are far easier and cheaper to develop... it's just not a big question for us in the industry. The only benefit to OpenGL at this point for us is for multi-platform graphics. The mac and linux markets for games are... not considerable vs. the ease of development for DX-based games.
It's more capable. That's all there is to it. We wouldn't screw with it if it wasn't.
I'm not a programmer so don't ask me for implementation specifics in this- I am in production.
Vista has a means to use OpenGL- it only usese MSOGL if no alternative driver is presented.
And apparently Vista will spur OpenAL adoption, as that's the only way to get around Vista's brain-dead DRM'd audio architecture and get hardware acceleration under Vista. That's straight from Creative's website detailing Vista's new audio architecture's effects and recommendations, btw. (Whatever you may think about Creative, you can't argue with their analysis on this one.)
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Most of the hobbyists I talk to tend to agree that, if you want to just put some triangles on screen, OpenGL is easier. If you want to do a complex graphic engine with lots of optimization, then Direct3d is easier.
It also depends on what kind of programming paradigm you're used to. Direct3d is OO. OpenGL is not.
I have experience porting our companiy's graphics engine (the OpenGL part of it) to the Wii, and it's not trivial.